Chapter 2 – Software Processes

Chapter 2. Software Processes 1

Topics covered

 Software process models

 Process activities
 Coping with change
 Process improvement

Chapter 2. Software Processes 2

The software process

 A structured set of activities required to develop a

software system.
 Many different software processes but all involve:
 Specification
 Design and implementation
 Validation
 Evolution.
 A software process model
 an abstract representation of a process

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Some software process models

 The waterfall model

 Plan-driven model.
 Separate and distinct phases of specification and development.
 Incremental development
 Specification, development and validation are interleaved.
 May be plan-driven or agile.
 Integration and configuration
 The system is assembled from existing configurable components.
 May be plan-driven or agile.
 In practice, most large systems are developed using a
process that incorporates elements from all of these models.

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The waterfall model

In principle, a phase has to be complete before

moving onto the next phase.
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Waterfall model usages

 The main drawback:

 the difficulty of accommodating change after the process is
underway.
 Mostly used for large systems engineering projects
 a system is developed at several sites.
 the plan-driven nature of the waterfall model helps coordinate
the work.
 When the requirements are well-understood and
changes will be fairly limited during the design process.
 Few business systems have stable requirements.

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Incremental development

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Incremental development benefits

 Reduce the cost of accommodating changing customer

requirements

 Easier to get customer feedback on the development

work that has been done.

 More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to

the customer

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Incremental development problems

 The process is not visible.

 Managers need regular deliverables
 Not cost-effective to produce documents for every product
version

 System structure tends to degrade as new increments

are added.
 Need time and money on refactoring to improve the software
 Regular change tends to corrupt the structure.
 Incorporating further software changes becomes increasingly
difficult and costly.

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Agile development

i.e.: waterfall model, incremental

development

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SCRUM – THE MOST POPULAR AGILE
DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES
AGILE DEVELOPMENT

PROs CONs
More flexible Hard to predict
Product get to Final product is
market faster not released first
Better Documentation
communication gets left behind
Reuse-oriented software engineering

 Based on software reuse where systems are integrated

from existing components or application systems (COTS
-Commercial-off-the-shelf systems).
 Stand-alone application systems (COTS)
 Package objects / component framework such as .NET or J2EE.
 Web services
 Reused elements may be configured to adapt their
behaviour and functionality to a user’s requirements
 Reuse is now the standard approach for building many
types of business system

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Reuse-oriented software engineering

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Advantages and disadvantages

 Reduced costs and risks as less software is developed

from scratch
 Faster delivery and deployment of system
 But requirements compromises are inevitable so system
may not meet real needs of users
 Loss of control over evolution of reused system elements

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PROCESS ACTIVITIES
The four basic process activities are specification, development,
validation and evolution

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Activity 1: Software specification

 The process of establishing what services are required

and the constraints on the system’s operation and
development.

 Use: Requirements engineering process

 Requirements elicitation and analysis
 Requirements specification
 Requirements validation

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The requirements engineering process

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Activity 2: Software design and implementation
~ Software development

 The process of converting the system specification into

an executable system.

 Two (sub) activities:

 Software design
• Design a software structure that realises the specification;
 Implementation
• Translate this structure into an executable program;
 The activities of design and implementation are closely related
and may be inter-leaved.

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A general model of the design process

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System implementation

 The software is implemented either by developing a

program or programs or by configuring an application
system.
 Design and implementation are interleaved activities for
most types of software system.
 Programming is an individual activity with no standard
process.
 Debugging is the activity of finding program faults and
correcting these faults.

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Activity 3: Software validation
building the thing right?

 Verification and validation (V & V)

 to show that a system conforms to its specification and meets
the requirements of the system customer.
 Involves checking and review processes and system
testing.
 System testing: executing the system with test cases
 Testing: the most commonly used V & V activity.

building the right thing?

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Stages of testing

• Test individual components

independently

• Testing of the system as a

whole

• Testing with
customer data
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Testing phases in a plan-driven software
process

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Activity 4: Software evolution

 Software is inherently flexible and can change.

 Requirements can change
 (changing business circumstances) => the software must also
evolve and change.

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COPING WITH CHANGE

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Coping with change

 Change is inevitable in all large software projects.

 Business changes
 New technologies
 Changing platforms

 Change leads to rework

 costs include rework (re-analysing requirements) and
implementing new functionality

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Software prototyping

 A prototype is an initial version of a system used to

demonstrate concepts and try out design options.
 A prototype can be used in:
 requirements engineering process: requirements elicitation and
validation;
 design processes: options and develop UI design;
 testing process: run back-to-back tests.
Benefits:
• Improved system usability.
• A closer match to users’ real
needs.
• Improved design quality.
• Improved maintainability.
• Reduced development effort.
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The process of prototype development

Prototype development:
• May be based on rapid
prototyping languages or tools
• May involve leaving out
functionality

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Incremental delivery

 The development and delivery is broken down into

increments
 each increment delivering part of the required functionality.
 user requirements are prioritised and the highest priority
requirements are included in early increments.
 Two approaches:
 Incremental development: by developer
 Incremental delivery: for end-user

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 Incremental delivery

Advantages:
• system functionality is
available earlier.
• early increments act as a Problems:
prototype • may require a set of basic
• lower risk of overall project facilities
failure. • the specification is
• highest priority system developed in conjunction
services receive most with the software.
testing.
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Software Project Documentation

Activity Document
Validation & Verification SVVP - Software Validation & Verification Plan

Quality Assurance SQAP - Software Quality Assurance Plan

Configuration SCMP - Software Configuration Management Plan

Project status SPMP - Software Project Management Plan

Requirements SRS - Software Requirements Specifications

Design SDD - Software Design Document / Software Detail

Design Document
Code Source Code
Testing STD - Software Test Document
Operation User’s Manual
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Summary

 Software processes
 Software process models
 waterfall, incremental development, reuse-oriented
development.
 Fundamental activities:
 Requirements engineering: developing specification.
 Design and implementation: transforming a requirements
specification into an executable software system
 Software validation: checking that the system conforms to its
specification.
 Software evolution: change existing software systems to meet
new requirements

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Summary (cont.)

 Coping with change

 prototyping
 iterative development and delivery

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